Stolen Victory
by ChoCedric
Summary: Reposte. How could you do this, Albus? Severus thought bitterly. Since it's your fault, it should be your job to go to the common room tonight and talk to a group of disheartened Slytherins who think they're worth nothing in your eyes. Snape's reaction to Dumbledore's announcement at Harry's first-year leaving feast.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Stolen Victory

By: ChoCedric

Severus Snape sat in the Great Hall, a leaden feeling filling his stomach. The reason he had this feeling was because the Headmaster was sitting very near him, a strange sort of twinkle in his eye. And Snape did not like that twinkle at all. He had enough subtlety to know that whenever he saw that particular twinkle, things weren't going to work out well for him.

He glanced at his Slytherins sitting at their table, looks of joy on their faces. This was the seventh year in a row that they had won the House Cup. How was he supposed to tell them that he had an extremely bad feeling that Albus Dumbledore had a nasty trick up his sleeve?

The doors to the Great Hall suddenly opened again, and in strode the absolute bane of his existence with his two gormless friends, Weasley and Granger. Never had Potter looked more like his father than in that moment. He came in, smiling with joy, confident that his achievement at saving the school would be met by compliments and praise. The nerve of that boy, Snape thought angrily. It brought him all the way back to his own school days, especially during his seventh year, when he'd kept stealing glances at Lily, who was smiling adoringly at a jubilant James Potter. God, both males with that surname – they made him sick.

Dumbledore pulled Severus out of his thoughts by raising his hand for quiet. As everyone obeyed, he began his end-of-year waffle. Snape never understood how the old fool gained so much pleasure from making asinine, overly cheerful speeches. Life's not a barrel of laughs, Albus, he thought disgustedly. You and your golden crops of Gryffindors may think so, but it's not.

Snape's dread mounted as Dumbledore then started to roll off the results of the House Cup contest. When he reached the number of points Slytherin had, the entire house went crazy. Snape could see his students looking happy that they had claimed their hard-earned victory.

But then, it began. Dumbledore's plan, which Snape had been so sure of at the beginning of this evening, came to fruition.

"Ah, yes, yes, well done Slytherin," Dumbledore said cheerfully. But his next words and the ones that followed made a volcano of anger simmer within Severus's entire being.

And by the end of the minute that followed, Snape knew his prediction had been one hundred percent correct. A wave of Albus's wand, and the entire Great Hall was decked out in a disgusting red and gold, Gryffindor cheers rising, rising, rising like the bile making its way up from Snape's stomach.

After all of the Slytherins' hard work, after all the pushes Snape had given them, followed by praise when they did something well, their victory had been stolen from them, all to make Harry bloody Potter smile.

And indeed, he was. Looking at the little whelp, he saw him celebrating with his little entourage, clapping and cheering while his Slytherins looked completely devastated. Some, mainly the first years, were in tears. That manipulative bastard, thought Snape, rage boiling through his entire system. Now, for the rest of the night, he'd have to answer his snakes' questions as to why Dumbledore didn't like them. It was his school days, all over again. He knew that if it had been he, Severus, who tried to feed Black to a werewolf, he would have been expelled faster than you could say "bitten." But because it had been a golden Gryffindor who had done the deed, he was barely reprimanded while Snape had been threatened with expulsion if he told anyone of the mongrel Lupin's condition!

Well, he thought as he continued to watch the celebration and devastation roar around him, thank you for breeding another crop of supporters for the Dark Lord, Albus. Just like in his school days, his Slytherins felt misunderstood. Not only did the other houses hate them in abundance, thinking they were a group of evildoers (even at eleven years old, for Merlin's sake), the faculty also mistrusted them, even the saintly Headmaster, who professed to be the leader of the light. The only place they felt acceptance was among those who felt the same way they did. The Dark Lord would lure them in with promises of seductive power. That's how Severus had been sucked in, after all.

He also thought with heartache about Lily as he saw several Slytherins glaring at the Gryffindors with what looked like hatred on their faces. Dumbledore, who was always prattling on and on about how the houses should unite ... how on Merlin's green Earth could he expect that to happen when no Gryffindor/Slytherin friendships were expected to work? He knew one of his first years, Tabbatha Davids, was friends with a Gryffindor,, Melissa Smitherson, who was one of the girls in first year too. Right now he could see her staring at Melissa with nothing but resentment, tears streaming down her face. He could imagine Dumbledore saying something like, "In time, she will learn to be happy for her friend's accomplishments," but right now, the girl was only eleven years old. The situation would only get worse if Gryffindor continued to beat Slytherin all because of Potter. That friendship will be over soon, he thought with a snarl.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, Albus, he thought with disgust as he left the table at the end of the feast. How could Albus claim he was fighting the Dark Lord if he was giving him new supporters every year? You know nothing about how the real world works, old man, he sneered inside his head. Also, thanks for making Potter more of a clone of his father than you would ever believe.

And I should make you go back to the common room and talk to a bunch of disheartened Slytherins who think they're worth nothing in your eyes, was his final thought as he left the upper levels of the school and descended down into the dungeons. That's right. They think they're worth absolutely nothing.

And Severus Snape spent the rest of the night doing just that.


End file.
